Thomas Cranmer’s ‘True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament’

"'As for the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book against the bishop of Winchester,the which my book teacheth so true a doctrine of the sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before the judgment of God, where the papistical doctrine contrary thereto shall be ashamed to show her face.'2

These final words of Thomas Cranmer’s declaration of faith before he was taken out to be burned remind us that the true doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was one of the key issues of the Reformation. Cranmer’s mature thought on the subject was a vital influence on the progress of the English Reformation and on the doctrine and liturgy of the English Church. Though a meek man, Cranmer expressed in these words a mighty confidence in the Biblical doctrine of the Lord’s Supper which he had come to embrace.

The development of Cranmer’s views on the sacrament has been a matter of debate; the
concern of this paper is with his final, mature teaching as expressed in his book, and in other forms, in the reign of Edward VI...."

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